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NATIONWIDE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL CHAMPIONSHIP

September 24, 2015

Alex Aragon

Columbus, Ohio

Q. Conditions?
ALEX ARAGON: Awesome.

Q. Everybody else is saying brutal.
ALEX ARAGON: Well, I mean, very, very difficult obviously, but certainly not unfair. It's a really, really good golf course. Set up tough. You got to really watch what side of the fairways you hit your tee shot off of or even the rough sometimes so you can play the angles with the pins.

If you didn't, if you left yourself the wrong angle at the pin, you had no chance of hitting anywhere near the hole.

That was kind of the key for me today. I kind of picked the right clubs off the tees and stayed on the right paths of the holes and was able to make a bunch of pars.

Q. Do you like a course like this in terms of difficulty?
ALEX ARAGON: Yes. Way. I love it. This is a great golf course. It's probably if not the best, one of the top two or three course this tour plays all year for sure.

Q. Talk about your season a little bit. It's been kind of up and down.
ALEX ARAGON: Thankfully I played three good weeks. A lot of good golf with bad scoring I guess is kind of what happened to me this season.

Whether it be one or two tee shots here and there that ruined the day. Middle of the season I putted awful, but I've been putting well as of late.

Then last week was a pretty good example. I made a ten on my third hole today, and so, I mean, it's tough to come back from that. Otherwise I played really well. That's kind of how I've done it all season: 85% really good, but the 15% has been terrible. So I missed a lot of cuts where I don't think I should have.

At least I was able to finish well, really high up, whenever I did play well. Yeah, overall I would say it was a pretty frustrating season, but coming of the season I had the year before it was an improvement. Going in the right direction.

Q. You were on the TOUR last year, right?
ALEX ARAGON: Yeah, I had my card and just nothing worked. I mean nothing. Hit it bad and putted bad. That's a recipe for a bad season.

Q. What did you find? Was it just golf?
ALEX ARAGON: Yeah, a little bit. A little bit. I think just maybe work on my swing a little bit in a different way. Kind of not so much swing as it is shots kind of helped a little bit.

Really last year was -- I don't know. It was just a snowball effect. I don't think I played any worse. Kind of the same thing: I felt like I played fine. I putted poorly at the wrong times and just missed it -- when you're only playing two days a week it's hard to really know what you're doing.

Disappointing, but certainly wasn't as bad as the outcomes, I don't think.

Q. You have an opportunity now this week.
ALEX ARAGON: Yeah, every week is a new season out here for the most part. You just got to take advantage. If you can play well, you got to play really well. Doesn't do you much good to finish in the middle of the pack.

Yeah, everybody knows what's at stake this week and next. Obviously as good a start as I could've hoped for, and hope to keep it going for the next three rounds.

Q. Jason Day said in a tweet yesterday that this tour changed his life.
ALEX ARAGON: Oh, did it?

Q. Yeah.
ALEX ARAGON: Did he even play in it? What did he play, one tournament?

Q. No, no, no. (Indiscernible.)
ALEX ARAGON: Oh, did he? I don't think any anything was going to derail that kid. Yeah, especially the way it's up now. There is no other way. You got to come out here and get it done.

I've had two good seasons the last two times I was out here. This season, like I said wasn't -- didn't go as well as I had hoped. When you look at the names that are on this tour, I mean, you got to play a lot of good golf.

Yeah, it certainly prepares you for what you need today. Nothing is the same. Mentally it's a different world out there, but competition is as good as you need to be.

Q. Explain a little bit mentally.
ALEX ARAGON: Just everything is a little bit bigger, magnified. A mistake here or there kind of -- it's a little tougher to deal with. Everything is a little bit magnified is the best word I can say.

A little bit easier to fly under the radar here. I don't know. I think it's a fine line between playing well and playing terrible.

Q. It's like a second season now though, right?
ALEX ARAGON: Yeah, every week. Every week is a season. That's how I look at it in these tournaments.

Q. These final four here.
ALEX ARAGON: These final four. Every tournament is a new season. You top 5 in any one of these and your job is unbelievable next year.

Yeah, like last week I didn't have a good week, but coming into this week, if you do, it's just as good as having a great week last week.

Like I said, every week out here, especially for the playoffs, is its own season, I think.

Q. Was there anything in your game going into this week that you feel like...
ALEX ARAGON: Yeah, no, no, I've been working really hard on trying to get off the tee boxes. I've taken a lot of penalty strokes the last month or so. So for me, that is the key: get it in play off the tee. I can handle the rest pretty well.

Keeping it in play off the tee has been my focus for the last month. Last week was really was just two holes. Went crazy. Today, like I said, I was able to stay on the right sides of the hole most of the day.

Q. Was it one certain trouble shot or was it everything?
ALEX ARAGON: No. Just the tee shot on every hole.

Q. (No microphone.)
ALEX ARAGON: No, I mean, there was no pattern. That was the hardest part today. Equally right and left, so...

Just been fighting that really most of the season. When I have found the fairways I've done well. That's kind of been the focus every week for me.

Q. (Indiscernible.)
ALEX ARAGON: (Indiscernible) hit a lot of fairways. Oh, yeah. It was easy. I was in play all the time. (Laughter.)

Q. You adjust anything with tee shots today, like backing off?
ALEX ARAGON: Yeah, I think I did a good -- oh, yeah, I did a great job of picking the right club today off the tee. I hit two irons a couple times when I think a lot of the guys, for example off of 1 I hit 2-iron. I saw almost everyone else hitting driver. 2-iron you just hit it up the left side and you have a wedge to that.

I mean, where that pin is, in you are in the bunker on the right or right of the bunkers, you got no chance. So I think I did a good job of that, picking the right club so that I could -- because for me, instead of having to fit in a perfect tee shot, you just kind of give yourself the fat half of the fairway.

You know par is good on every hole. There is no hole where par is not a good score.

Q. Talk about the run to start with the birdies early.
ALEX ARAGON: Yeah, I chipped in on 11, which just got the day started. Then I had a 10-footer for eagle on 11 - or on 12 that I missed.

Hit it to about four feet on 13.

Yeah, I mean, like I said, the main thing that's been going on with me is I've been just ruining my score right out of the gate. To have gotten off to a good start like that was really cool.

Q. (Question regarding a Stanford guy being a thinker.)
ALEX ARAGON: Yeah. I told my caddie, I think I outsmarted everybody off of 1 today. I mean, I made birdie and it was like I couldn't believe guys were pulling driver.

If you hit it any distance at all -- the left half of the fairway is not there because you're going to go right through it. Then the right side is a pretty long carry, so I didn't understand why anyone was hitting driver today.

But it always is easy when you hit a good shot. Makes it seem like you pulled the right club.

Q. Can you overcome 15?
ALEX ARAGON: Of course. Of course. I've been a victim of that many times. Yeah, I didn't overthink anything today. Just got to play the angles on this golf course and be patient. There are no easy putts and no easy shots.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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